Samsung Heavy to expand maritime business with CCS

South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries announced on Thursday that it has secured Approval In Principle from a Norwegian classification society DNV for its floating CO2 storage unit (FCSU).

The certification ceremony took place on Aug. 30 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The FCSU, a collaboration between Samsung Heavy Industries and MISC Berhad, a global maritime energy solutions firm, boasts dimensions of 330 meters in length and 64 meters in width.

The unit is equipped with high-pressure tanks capable of storing up to 100,000 cubic meters of liquefied carbon dioxide at temperatures as low as -50°C.

Of particular note is the unit's injection module, located on the upper part of the hull, which has the capacity to sequester 5 million tons of carbon dioxide annually to deep-sea levels.

This is comparable to the annual carbon emissions of roughly 3.3 million cars, each driven 15,000 km per year.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS), a technology focused on the permanent sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, is gaining traction as a viable solution to achieving global carbon neutrality.

Both Samsung Heavy Industries and MISC Berhad have been jointly researching the technology and its feasibility since January this year.

MISC Berhad has plans to roll out a business model aimed at storing carbon dioxide in depleted offshore oil and gas reservoirs globally, including in Malaysia. Samsung Heavy Industries is set to further the collaboration by supplying FCSUs for the venture.

Write to Jae-Fu Kim at hu@hankyung.com